Rolly: GOP officer's rules do not apply to him

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Drew Chamberlain, who was elected last year as secretary of the Utah Republican Party, was one of the plaintiffs who sued the party for awarding automatic delegate status to certain elected officials and party officers.

The lawsuit claimed that all delegates should be elected at their neighborhood party caucuses. It eventually was dismissed, but some party members found it discomforting that an elected party officer had sued the party.

Now, guess who is an automatic delegate to the GOP State Convention this year?

When Chamberlain was not elected as a delegate at his caucus last month, he took an automatic delegate position by virtue of being a Senate district chairman in Davis County.

He explained the apparent hypocrisy to fellow Republicans, saying he needed to be a delegate at the convention to fight the policy of automatic delegates.



No room for dissent? • If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, in Utah politics it might not actually be a duck.

And Sharon Murphy says she's no duck.

Murphy was friended on Facebook by former legislator and conservative blogger Holly Richardson, so Richardson could post information to her about U.S. Senate candidate Dan Liljenquist, for whom she now is a paid campaign operative.

But, Murphy says, despite the fact that she and Richardson both live in Pleasant Grove, shop at the same stores and go to the same church, "I had to tell her that doesn't mean I have to think like her."

Once Richardson got a taste of Murphy's thought processes, she blocked her former Facebook friend from responding on her page. So Murphy went to Richardson's blog and "I called her out on it."

Murphy's getting used to it, though. She previously was blocked from former legislator and congressional candidate Carl Wimmer's Facebook page for not following the script.

She proudly counts herself among the "blue hairs" that swarmed neighborhood caucuses this year and knocked off the tea party types who helped defeat Sen. Bob Bennett two years ago.



Johnny-come-latelies • When I wrote recently about all the tea party types defeated at the caucuses, I listed several, including Brandon Beckam and Arturo Morales-Lan, two vocal opponents to HB116, Utah's guest-worker bill. It turns out those two were elected as delegates, but their names did not show up on the state delegate list for nearly two weeks after the caucus elections. Their names were not on the list at the time I wrote that column.

Morales-Lan did show up on my caller ID Wednesday night, but when I answered, it wasn't Morales-Lan. It was a robo call inviting me to a meeting for U.S. Senate candidate Chris Herrod and gubernatorial candidate Ken Sumsion, two of the five legislators who were featured in that goofy Patrick Henry Caucus video I wrote about a few months ago that portrayed them as some kind of superheroes. The video was produced by Beckham. It's just one big happy family.



Delegate perks • Republican gubernatorial candidate David Kirkham recently sent a flier to state GOP delegates that had bullet points summarizing his agenda, including his promise that he would be "against pay-to-play."

That was seen as a direct slap at incumbent Gov. Gary Herbert, who has been accused of giving favorable treatment to generous campaign donors.

Kirkham's flier to the delegates also contained two complimentary general-admission tickets to Track Day, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday at Miller Motorsports Park.



Change of heart? • Legislator-turned State Auditor candidate John Dougall also sent a campaign flier to delegates that lists a number of promises if he is elected.

One promise is that he will increase transparency in government. That would be the same John Dougall who last year introduced the ill-fated HB477, which would have made it much more difficult to access government records.

Reader comments on sltrib.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Salt Lake Tribune. We will delete comments containing obscenities, personal attacks and inappropriate or offensive remarks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. If you see an objectionable comment, please alert us by clicking the arrow on the upper right side of the comment and selecting "Flag comment as inappropriate". If you've recently registered with Disqus or aren't seeing your comments immediately, you may need to verify your email address. To do so, visit disqus.com/account. See more about comments here.